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Wellington Fields Allotments - Hixon.

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The Season Moves On.

My last Article spoke of the “Odd Weather,” that we had throughout the Winter and Spring, and it hasn’t got any more “Normal,” as the weeks have gone by. Going into “Flaming June,” we had a few very cold nights that were close to producing a Frost with a sprinkling of Snow over the hills in Scotland. The second half of June saw things heat up a bit though and we had a much warmer spell, but even that was a lot cooler than most of Europe, Asia and Africa where they had “Record Breaking,” temperatures. Into July and we had temperatures that were below average with some more cold nights when it went down to 5 or 6 degrees Centigrade! Many Plants have just been sitting there with it being too cold for them to grow properly. The days have been quite sunny for the most part though and some plants have taken advantage of that – especially the weeds!
Even with the strange Weather things have been happening on the Allotments with Seeds being sown and Plants planted. My first sowing of Runner Beans failed and I did re-sow them, but they just rotted in ground, however, I got a few Plants from Work and they are doing alright now. In fact, the Runners are starting up the Canes quite well, but the Dwarf French Beans don’t seem to be doing very much. They are a bit strange to grow though, because when you look at the Plants, they always seem to be too small to do anything and then when you take a closer look, you find great clusters of juicy Pods. You often think that you haven’t grown enough Plants to be worthwhile, but from a handful of small plants you can get quite a big haul of Pods for cooking.

My Squash, Courgettes and outdoor Cucumbers are also well behind, although I have to admit, they did go in late as well. I must say that my various Flowering Plants, that I grow for cutting, are doing well producing bucket loads of cut flowers. The differently coloured Alstroemerias in particular, are growing well, as are the lovely orange/red Fox & Cubs, and Blue and White Scabious. Even my Chrysanthemums are trying to flower although it is a bit early for them. The Gloden Rod, Asters, and cultivated Toad Flax are all coming on as well and starting to show some colour as of writing this. I have also added some differently coloured Iris’s to my cut flower collection. A Yellow and a Purple Bearded Iris, and smaller, naturalising Blue. Hopefully, they will bulk up a bit in what is left of the Summer and produce some worthwhile Flowers next Season.
Some of the Vegetables have done alright in spite of the odd weather and my Broad Beans are a case in point. I started harvesting them in mid-June, from the early sowing that was done at the end of last Autumn and am just about to pick the later sowing, that was done around the end of February/March time. A friend who planted his later in the Spring has found that his Plants are covered in Black Fly whereas mine hardly have any on. The reason is that my plants had just about finished growing when the Fly started to appear, so my plants had no tender young shoots, whereas his plants had all new and soft foliage which is what the Black Fly go for. One simple solution is to pinch out the soft and tender growing tips where most of the Fly gather. You can also try Garlic and Soap Sprays, and planting Marigolds amongst them is said to deter the Black Fly. The Asparagus also harvested well which was surprising after such a wet Winter because they prefer drier conditions and will die if it is too wet.
 The Soil in my raised Asparagus Bed is fairly soft so it isn’t difficult to get weeds out, but I “Mulched,” round a Friends Asparagus to supress the Weeds and make weeding easier in the future as Asparagus Plants don’t like you digging around them with a Fork, or Spade. Of course, my Sea Kale was the first thing to harvest back at the end of Feb/March and would have been in full flower by now if I had left it. However, I usually cut off all the Flower Stems as they start to come up and this encourages the large “Cabbage Like,” fleshy Leaves, to grow which re-energise the plants ready for their harvest early next Spring. Some people eat these, but they are very tough and bitter. The Globe Artichokes had looked very bad through much of last Winter, but recovered well and I put a fresh Mulch round them as they like moisture and do suffer if it is a hot and dry Summer. There have been plenty of “Heads,” on them and I have left some to develop into the very spectacular, Thistle like, Flowers. Bees and other Insects love these big and bold, blue flowers. I have also been picking plenty of Rhubarb, although it was slow to start. However, I have never seen so many Slugs Eggs on the Stalks before. After the wet Winter Slugs are being a real problem on the Allotments in general this Season. We are allowed to use Slug Pellets on the Allotments, but Plot Holders are advised to use the “Organic,” or Ferric type which are a paler blue in colour and supposed to be safe for Wildlife. They are a little more expensive and not always readily available, but one advantage is that they are not harmful to Pets or Children if they accidentally get eaten.

The crazy Weather also seems to be throwing the Fruit development all over the place with it ripening all out of sequence. First should come the Strawberries, then the Loganberries and Early Raspberries followed on quickly by the Gooseberries and then, later on, the Currants, late Raspberries and at the end of August/September, the Figs and Blackberries. After this it should be the start of the Apples, Quinces and Pears, and Hazelnuts. Medlars are the last of the regular Fruits to be picked, but they shouldn’t be ready until we have had the first real Frosts of the coming Winter. However, as I say, everything seems to be getting mixed up and not ripening in order. When the Fruit started to ripen, I found myself picking Rhubarb, Raspberries, Logan Berries and Black Currants all on the same day and when I looked at one of my Fig Trees, I found that one Fruit had already ripened and gone rotten!
On the subject of Fruit, I have also been “Thinning the Fruit,” “Tying in” stray branches that had come loose and pruning the excess growth from my Fruit Trees. When the Fruit had started to develop, I could see where to safely cut without removing any Fruit by accident. This allows a bit more Light to get at the Fruit to help ripen it, but more importantly allows better air circulation that may prevent some problems with fungus and mould from developing. The added weight of the Fruit often means that Branches need securing better and strings break from time to time anyway, so they need checking periodically. While going over my Trees I finally decided to remove an unproductive Tree that I always believed was a Wild Quince. Every year it struggled to hold on to its Leaves as soon as we had any drier weather and never showed any signs of producing Fruit or even Flowers. So, I cut it down before removing the Stump. As with the Prunings, I shredded what I could of the Branches before using them as a Mulch in my Garden to supress the Weeds and improve the Soil a little. As I have so many Fruit Trees the question is what to plant in its place? Whatever I decide to go for it won’t be many weeks until Autumn comes which will be a much better time to plant a Tree so I shall leave it until then.

On a different subject, the Allotments Committee decided to arrange a talk on Composting to be given by a lecturer from Grow Organic. Technically we are not an organic site as we haven’t been certified yet, but we are trying to head in that direction. With this in mind, we have had our own Composting Facility that any Plot Holder can make use of for some time, but we felt we wanted to see how we could improve the operation. There was a Fee that had to be paid to Book the Lecturer, but after all of our Fundraising of late, the Committee felt that it would be worthwhile. I have to admit that I was a bit sceptical about its benefits but was pleasantly surprised by the Talk. It was well structured, informative and yet entertaining and the time went by quickly. After the Talk the Chap made a site visit to see our Compost Bins so that he could give us his opinions on how we might improve things. Firstly, he was a bit taken-a-back by the size of our Bins as he normally deals with Composting operations made from Pallets. Then he did say that the only real way we could improve things is to operate like the Councils do with huge great big open piles that get turned regularly by Diggers. As that wouldn’t be practical, he advised that we get our friendly Farmer to turn the Heap inside the Bin as it fills rather than just doing it when it has been filled. He was impressed by the Temperature that we were achieving though. His thermometer registered 40 degrees in one place and then 60 degrees in another. This indicated that it needed to be turned more to evenly spread the composting bacteria that raise the Temperature and give it a better mix. He also said that he would help with notices to encourage Plot Holders to put the right waste into the Bin and keep out the unsuitable rubbish. When told of our rebuilding plans, he did have one comment on our thoughts and that was that we should be very careful of any treatment used on any of the Timbers that we might use in its reconstruction as Chemicals could leach out into the Compost and contaminate it. Whatever we decide to do it will not be until the Autumn before anything gets done anyway. So hopefully, use of the Compost Heap will be less frantic by then making it easier to work on.

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